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‘My Classic Car’ host to appear at British National Meet

Dennis Gage will be at this year’s British Car Week. (Submitted photo)

By JEFF MEEK

Senior reporter

When the British National Meet returns to Hot Springs Village and Hot Springs, it will have an added guest many car enthusiasts will want to meet.

Dennis Gage, host of the “My Classic Car” television show, will be attending the festivities. His appearance is sponsored by Allen Tillery Chevrolet.

Gage grew up on a small farm in northwest Illinois where he began tinkering with cars early on, then purchased his first, a 1959 Thunderbird, at age 15. Upon graduating from high school he attended North Central College in Naperville where he majored in both chemistry and physics.

After receiving his degree, Gage took up the pedal steel guitar and started playing in country-rock bands in the Chicago area, opening for acts such as Charlie Daniels and Dr. Hook. But two years later he left the music world to attend graduate school.

At the University of Idaho he received a Ph.D. in chemistry and became an avid climber and winter mountaineer. Thereafter he accepted a position as a product manager at Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, Ohio.

There he worked on several products such as the chips called “Pringles,” which he bears a striking resemblance to the handlebar mustachioed character on the can.

Ten years later he took a position as director of product development at a Bristol-Myers Squibb company in Evansville, Ind., where he led the development of “Boost” nutritional drink.

In 1995 he met the founder of the fledgling Bradley David Productions Inc., and he became co-owner of the company shortly thereafter. A “My Classic Car” pilot series, hosted by Gage, was developed for TNN and received strong ratings when it aired in early 1996.

Later it became a weekly series on TNN in January 1997. That same year he was selected as one of the “Hot Faces of Cable.”

In 2000, the show moved to the SPEED channel, becoming one of the highest-rated programs on the network. Now in its 18th season, the show is carried on both the Velocity and MAVTV networks, and he and his business partner also received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for Indiana in 2000.

The meet will take place May 29-31 with car owners expected from 30 states. The event will include a special “Crown Jewels” show at the Hot Springs Convention Center on May 29 and 30.